Technology Tales

New SAS transport format and tools available

SAS introduced an updated transport format, offering enhanced capabilities compared to the older V5 version, including support for longer variable names, extended character lengths, more flexible naming conventions and increased label lengths. This format is managed through macros such as LOC2XPT and XPT2LOC, which facilitate the conversion between SAS datasets and transport files. Despite these advancements, the V5 format remains necessary for regulatory submissions in the biopharmaceutical sector. The new format is compatible with a wide range of operating systems, and users can integrate the associated macros into their SAS environments for streamlined data handling.

Jurassic SAS in the BI/EBI World

Don Henderson's blog explores how SAS Server Pages and PROC STREAM can be used beyond their original purpose in stored processes and web applications, extending their utility to standard batch processing environments such as SAS Display Manager and SAS Enterprise Guide. A central theme across several posts is the development of a reusable tag cloud macro that generates graphical HTML displays of business intelligence data, using the JQuery-based JQCloud widget to render word clouds where the size of each word reflects the magnitude of an analysis variable. The blog traces the evolution of this macro from a straightforward single-cloud implementation to one supporting a BY variable, allowing a separate cloud to be generated for each distinct value of a grouping variable within a single output file. Alongside this, Henderson details a reusable AJAX container framework built on JQuery that enables dynamic, page-refreshing-free interaction with stored process outputs, including drill-down functionality triggered by clicking words in the cloud. Supporting components such as parameterised HTML forms, JSON-generating macros using SCL data access functions and footer pages are described in depth, illustrating how the architecture can be adapted for different datasets and display requirements. The author argues that tag clouds offer a more visually engaging alternative to bar charts and pie charts for representing business intelligence data, and positions the entire framework as a flexible, extensible foundation for web-based reporting in SAS environments.

Five things you (probably) don’t know you can do with a hash table in SAS

Hash tables in SAS are versatile tools capable of performing tasks beyond basic table lookups, such as supporting create, read, update and delete operations similar to a database, enabling data aggregation across multiple levels with minimal processing steps and allowing for parametrisation through macro language or data-driven techniques. They can manage memory constraints effectively using partitioning methods and often offer efficiency advantages over traditional SAS approaches for data management. These capabilities are explored in detail in a book authored by a SAS consultant with extensive experience in data warehouse and business intelligence applications, highlighting practical implementations and code examples.

Windows Environment Variables

Environment variables in Windows are used to store configuration settings and paths, often accessed within batch files or command-line sessions and can be temporarily adjusted using the SET command or permanently modified with SETX. Common examples include %AppData%, %LocalAppData% and %Temp%, which point to user-specific directories, while others like %SystemRoot% and %ProgramFiles% reference system-wide locations. These variables are enclosed in percent signs and may contain letters, numbers and special characters, though they cannot begin with a numeral. Dynamic variables update automatically during use, while volatile ones are session-specific and stored in memory.

Environment variables are stored in the Windows registry under user or system settings and their precedence during process execution follows a defined order, with system variables taking priority over user-defined ones. Security considerations advise against using them for sensitive data, as inherited variables may expose information in crash logs or other contexts. Custom variables are often prefixed with an underscore or dollar sign to avoid conflicts with built-in names and tools like SET and SETX facilitate their management, though undocumented variables exist for advanced use cases.

Summary of SAS Macro Quoting Functions and the Characters They Mask

Unquoting Text

Macro quoting functions in SAS are used to mask special characters and symbols so they are treated as text rather than as part of the macro language. When an item is masked, its significance is typically restored automatically when it is passed to other parts of the SAS system, but manual unquoting may be required in specific cases. This is necessary if the masked value needs to retain its original meaning within the same macro, or if the way the word scanner processes the text leads to unexpected results. The %UNQUOTE function is employed to reverse the masking effect, allowing symbols to be interpreted correctly in contexts such as comparisons or data processing. Different macro quoting functions mask varying sets of characters, with some operating during compilation and others during execution, depending on the specific requirements of the task.

Unicode Consortium

The Unicode Consortium aims to ensure global access to language use on digital devices, offering technical resources such as standards, code charts and documentation, alongside opportunities for organisational and individual membership, character adoption and donations. It provides information on governance, licensing and intellectual property policies, along with updates on events, news and public engagement initiatives, supported by a global network of contributors and stakeholders.

Apache Groovy
Grails

Apache Groovy is a versatile, Java-like programming language for the JVM that combines dynamic and static typing to enhance developer productivity, offering features such as closures, meta-programming and support for domain-specific languages. It integrates seamlessly with Java and third-party libraries, enabling the creation of scripts, applications and testing tools with a syntax familiar to Java developers. Built on Groovy, the Grails framework provides a web application development environment leveraging Spring Boot, with conventions that simplify configuration and support for REST APIs, asynchronous programming and front-end technologies like React and Angular. Both Groovy and Grails benefit from a rich ecosystem of plugins, tools and community resources and are maintained as open-source projects under the Apache Software Foundation, fostering collaboration and innovation in JVM-based software development.

PHP Tutorial: Dynamically Cache and Combine All CSS Files

Loading multiple CSS files on a webpage requires separate browser requests for each file, which can slow down page performance. A caching system that combines all CSS files into a single cached file can improve response times. A cache is a snapshot of a file at a specific moment, most useful for files that remain relatively static, making CSS files ideal candidates since they change infrequently. The implementation involves creating two files in the stylesheet directory: cache.css to store the combined content and cache.php to manage generation and delivery of the cached content. The PHP script monitors the modification dates of specified CSS files and regenerates the cache whenever any source file is updated more recently than the existing cache. The page header then references only the single cache.php file instead of multiple individual stylesheets, reducing the number of browser requests from several to just one. The PHP code reads all designated CSS files, writes their combined contents to the cache file and serves the result with the proper content type header. Initial setup requires configuring the file paths and permissions, updating the page headers to reference the new cache file and ensuring at least one stylesheet has been modified to trigger initial cache generation.

HTML ISO Country Codes Reference

HTML country codes serve as standardised two-character additions to language codes in the lang attribute, allowing web developers to specify both the language and geographical region of their pages. When combined with a language code, such as in the example "en-US" for English in the United States, these ISO codes help browsers and search engines better understand the intended audience and regional context of web content. The system encompasses codes for virtually every nation and territory globally, from Afghanistan (AF) to Zimbabwe (ZW), providing a comprehensive framework for international web development. This specification proves particularly valuable for sites targeting multiple regional markets or those requiring precise localisation, as it enables proper rendering of regional variations in spelling, currency formats and other locale-specific content.

HTML Language Code Reference

The lang attribute should be included in the HTML tag to specify the language of a web page, which helps search engines and browsers properly interpret content. This declaration follows the ISO 639-1 standard, which provides two-letter abbreviations for languages such as "en" for English, "fr" for French, "de" for German and "zh" for Chinese. In standard HTML, the attribute appears as lang within the opening HTML tag, whilst XHTML requires both lang and xml:lang attributes along with the proper namespace declaration. The ISO standard covers hundreds of languages from widely spoken ones like Spanish and Arabic to less common languages like Cornish and Ndonga, with some languages like Chinese having additional codes to distinguish between simplified and traditional variants. Properly declaring the language ensures that content is indexed correctly and improves the browsing experience for users across different linguistic contexts.